Since the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture had been Twin-Blade Demon's chosen target before the operation began, Twin-Blade Demon immediately used that as justification to negotiate, demanding that Ivette handle the Night Walker Demon and Mechanical Tyrant and stop stealing its kills.
Ivette's brows furrowed unconsciously.
She had 644 mana in total. Setting aside 100 for emergencies left 544. With three Third Stage Mutants to deal with in this operation, including the Nest Lord, that came to roughly 180 mana per kill.
And the blow that had severely wounded the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture had already consumed nearly 50 mana. Reassigning it to Twin-Blade Demon now meant those 50 points of mana had been spent working for Twin-Blade Demon...
But this was a critical moment, and Twin-Blade Demon truly looked rather useless. For now, she could only let it go. When dealing with the Night Walker Demon and Mechanical Tyrant, she would conserve enough mana for herself to face the Tide Worm Queen, which had yet to appear, as well as the mysterious source of the thick fog.
While Ivette and Twin-Blade Demon finished dividing their targets, the Mechanical Tyrant and Night Walker Demon had not been idle either.
The Mechanical Tyrant tilted its speedboat-shaped triangular head slightly upward. The metal plates beneath it opened, revealing a cannon wrapped in flesh and tissue, which fired a searing pillar of flame. The Night Walker Demon, meanwhile, charged forward on heavy, bloated legs, opening a bloody maw large enough to swallow a car, seemingly intent on biting down on both her and the mud beneath her feet.
This was actually a perfect opportunity. These Third Stage Mutants were not particularly intelligent, no smarter than ordinary beasts. Ivette immediately adjusted her position with Muscle Unlimit and Wind Control, leaping backward to evade the Night Walker Demon's enormous jaws while using it as a shield to take the Mechanical Tyrant's pillar of flame.
Then she combined Flame Dance and Wrath of Thunder once more, blasting them at the Night Walker Demon's head. Caught between attacks, it let out a miserable howl, beat its wings, and ran away. It looked as though it was trying to flee.
Fine, let it run. That'll save me some mana... Ivette thought. But she had barely had time to feel pleased before the Night Walker Demon, halfway through its escape, stopped. After struggling in place for a moment, it turned around and approached again.
Ivette understood at once. It had to be a compulsory order from the Mother Nest, the price every Mutant that evolved by relying on the Mother Nest had to pay.
But this time, the returning Night Walker Demon was no longer so foolish. It had realized that the Mechanical Tyrant beside it was not a clever teammate. It stood far away from the Mechanical Tyrant, opened its huge mouth, and actually spewed out countless pitch-black vampire bats that surged toward Ivette like a dark cloud.
At the same time, the Mechanical Tyrant, showing no remorse whatsoever for injuring its companion, immediately began another round of attacks. The cannon barrels on its left and right arms fired elemental bullets in an unbroken stream, while the cannon beneath its body began to glow red, preparing another blast of flame.
Standing out in the open, Ivette could no longer quickly lure the two into hurting each other. After briefly calculating her mana expenditure, she summoned dense Rune Rings around herself once again.
Frost bolts, wind blades, fire serpents, lightning—dazzling magical spells burst from the Rune Rings and collided with the incoming flames, elemental bullets, and vampire bats.
All kinds of vivid magical particles splashed and vanished across the battlefield, nearly transforming the area into a kaleidoscopic ocean of elements.
Not far away, Twin-Blade Demon and the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture had still been tangled up in their own fight. Relying on its speed advantage, Twin-Blade Demon kept circling and taunting the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture, toying with it like a cat and having a grand time dragging out the battle.
But when that dazzling elemental storm appeared, both sides stopped moving at once. A pair of compound eyes, two vulture heads, and one charred vulture head all fixed on the center of the battlefield, as if they had completely forgotten each other existed.
After a while, seeing that the silver-haired girl's firepower was growing fiercer and that victory was about to be decided, the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture turned and fled. Twin-Blade Demon immediately gave chase. One in front and one behind, they rushed into the thick fog and vanished without a trace.
Grayish-white mist spread across the land, like the haze that never dispersed from the mythic River Styx.
Here, the blazing sun, blue sky, and white clouds were all gone. Only damp, frigid air entered her lungs, making it feel as though she had returned to a bitter winter of howling wind and snow.
Gripping the hilt of the Alloy Combat Blade, Rosaline felt her arms tremble faintly. Since she had begun studying magic six years ago, this was the first time she had faced an enemy that could truly be called powerful—and in such a bizarre environment. Her heartbeat could not help accelerating, and she even felt the urge to retreat.
Why am I always this unlucky? she thought bitterly. If she had been facing the Corrosive Beak Demon Vulture or even the Mechanical Tyrant, she would not have been so afraid.
But the Shepherd Sheep was simply too terrifying. Hidden in the fog, it kept biting at her with bloody human heads. Calling it a ghost story would not have been an exaggeration. She had long grown numb to the ugliness of Mutants, but she had always been deeply resistant to ghosts and spirits.
Fortunately, her swordsmanship had already become exceptionally proficient. That was why she could react swiftly every time she was attacked and slash apart one of its heads.
I can't keep this up. It's too passive. Sooner or later, I'll get hurt... With that thought, Rosaline decided to try using Wind Control to disperse the surrounding mist. Unlike her teacher, she only had 81 mana. Maintaining Scarlet Armor and Muscle Unlimit left her with very little to spare. She had to calculate every expenditure carefully; any waste would be a crippling loss to her combat strength.
Rather than use it immediately, she began waiting patiently for the moment when the Shepherd Sheep showed itself again.
After observing it through several exchanges, she had discovered that the direction from which the human heads flew was not necessarily where the Shepherd Sheep was. Sometimes, it even placed a human head directly above Rosaline before suddenly biting down. That had given her such a fright that she had nearly thought her hair would be torn out.
Her only opportunity was the moment its footsteps stopped, such as... now! Rosaline widened her eyes. Green light wrapped around her blade as she dashed forward and drew her sword in a slash. A crescent wind blade swept out, shredding all the fog ahead of her. But to her surprise, the path revealed in that direction was completely empty.
Rosaline froze for a moment, but in the next instant, she sensed something strange above her.
She abruptly looked up and saw the sheep-headed monster clinging to a thick branch glowing purple overhead with its humanoid hands and feet, hanging there as it watched her! A chilling grin spread across its sheep-like face. Then it suddenly released its grip and plummeted toward her like a meteor, reaching out to seize her!
Even more horrifyingly, its shriveled abdomen suddenly split open to both sides. Dozens of snarling human faces gushed out madly, as if the gates of hell had opened and spewed forth endless hatred and despair, ready to devour her whole.
This is bad... Rosaline's mind went blank. All that took over her body was the fighting instinct she had accumulated over three years.
Without spending any additional mana to assist her in battle, she relied on muscle memory to evade the Shepherd Sheep's descending slap, just as she had evaded countless sneak attacks from Mutants before.
Then she swung her blade on instinct. She even forgot to activate High-Frequency Oscillation and High-Voltage Current. With only Muscle Unlimit, the most basic enhancement spell, she unleashed countless flashes of blade light and severed countless human heads.
Moreover, the Shepherd Sheep did not seem skilled at close combat. Though powerful, its movements were as slow as if they had been set to half speed—sluggish beyond belief. It was not even as troublesome as some low-level Mutated Creatures that only knew how to launch dirty sneak attacks—like Twin-Blade Demon. So she easily evaded the Shepherd Sheep's heavy punches, drew her blade, and slashed back again and again...
In the end, she did not know how much time had passed. By the time she stood gripping her sword hilt, panting as she came back to herself, the terrifying monster's body had already been chopped into chunks of flesh and gore scattered across the ground. It had died an exceptionally miserable death. Its sheep head lay some distance away, wearing a ghastly expression, its eyes full of terror, as though it had suffered immense, inhuman torment before dying.
And she stood amid the sticky fragments of its corpse, like a deranged young female killer bathing in blood.
After staring blankly for a while and realizing that her enemy was dead, the blonde girl finally let out a long breath. As she wiped the blood from her face, she could not help but smile.
Teacher is definitely going to be shocked... she thought happily.
Before you continue